Why plastic bags should be banned?

Answer 1

1.They use up Natural Resources--"Every time we use a new plastic bag they go and get more petroleum from the Middle East and bring it over in tankers," said Stephanie Barger, executive director of Earth Resource Foundation in Costa Mesa, California. "We are extracting and destroying the Earth to use a plastic bag for 10 minutes."

2. They harm wildlife and marine life-plastic bags are now in all places in our environment, and animals, on land and water, are getting choked, strangled and killed by them.

3. They create litter-Aside from polluting beaches and waterways, plastic bags blowing around streets in China are so common they've earned the name "white pollution." And in South Africa, the bags littering the countryside are called "national flowers." In some African areas, people are even "harvesting" the plastic bags to make bags, hats and other crafts.

4. They take a long time to biodegrade-Most plastic bags used either end up as litter or in landfills (less than 1 percent are recycled). In a landfill, it's estimated that one plastic bag takes about 1,000 years to biodegrade. A plastic bag floating around as litter takes about 20 years.

5. They can be hazardous to humans -- Plastic bags pose a suffocation hazard to people, particularly children, and pets. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (C.P.S.C.) receives an average of 25 reports each year in which a child has suffocated from a plastic bag.

6. Plastic bags are made out of non-biodegradable substances. Because they are durable they do not rot. Scientist believe s that it would take up to 1,000 years to break down. In that time plastic bags separate into smaller toxic particles that contaminates the soil and even waterways. Even if we try to burn them, it pollutes the atmosphere

7. Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are made worldwide. That means that 1 million plastic bags are made each minute, but then billions end up as litter each year. Making plastic bags can lead to exhaustion of oil, because to make a lot of plastic bags, we need a lot of oil. If we reduce oil we could save much more oil. You can actually drive about 460 meters with the oil which is used for only one plastic bag.

8. Plastic bags even kill a lot of marine animals. Plastic bags get blown into the ocean and float around like jelly-fish. A lot of sea-creatures choke and die for mistaking them as their food. Each year, thousands of sea turtles choke on plastic bags after mistaking them for jellyfish, their favourite food. Even other sea critters like sea lions and dolphins have also been found with their stomachs filled with plastic bags!

Answer 2

plastic bags shouldnt be banned because paper bags are a waste of wood for more important things

Answer 3

be cause it is a hazard to young children